Flexible metallic tube without joints.



N0. 7I2,4|8. Patented Oct. 28, I902.

C. RUDOLPH.

FLEXIBLE METALLIC TUBE WITHOUT JOINTS.

(Application filed Mar. 1, 1902.)

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No. 7|2,4|a. Patented Oct. 28, I902.

' c. RUDOLPH.

FLEXIBLE METALLIC TUBE WITHOUT JOINTS.

(Applicatipn filed Mar. 1, 1902.) (No Model.) 2 Shank-Sheet 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES RUDOLPH, OF PARIS, FRANCE, AS SIGNOR TO JAMES B. BRADY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND CHARLES THOMAS SCHOEN, OF PHILADELPHIA,

PENNSYLVANIA.

FLEXIBLE METALLIC TUBE WITHOUT JOINTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 712,418, dated October 28, 1902.

Application filed March 1, 1902. Serial No. 98,311. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES RUDOLPH, manufacturer, a citizen of the Republic of France, residing at Paris, France, (post-oflice address 66 Rue du Theatre, Paris,) have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Flexible Metallic Tubes without Joints, of which the following is a-full, clear, and exact description.

The problem which is solved by the present invention is to furnish a metallic tube without joints, rigid in its normal state, but susceptible of being easily bent in various directions.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 shows, partly in section and partlyin elevation, a flexible tube made in accordance with the particulars of myinvention. Fig. 2 shows the section of Fig. 3 bent into the required shape. Fig. 3 shows the section of a flattened tube destined to be bent into the required shape. Fig. 4 represents an ordinary tube twisted in spiral shape in order to make it flexible. Fig. 5 shows a section of a modification in the manner of making the tube of my invention. Fig. 6 shows an example of an application of the tube of this invention to the steam-heating orair-brake system of railway-cars.

In order to conduct a fluid, liquid, or gas between two movable points, a flexible tube must be employed. This tube is constantly being bent in such service, and one of the most practical means of not straining the tube is to give it a spiral or corkscrew form, as shown in Fig. 4.. By this means the tube can be easilybent, but the coils being unsustained the spiral may get out of shape or be stretched out to excess. In order .to rectify these inconveniences, I make a tube as shown in Fig. 1, using for this purpose a tube of oval cross-section, very much'flattened, as shown in Fig. 3, and then by progressively passing this tube between suitable dies it is gradually given the section shown in Fig. 2, in which ais the interior of the tube through which the 'fluid passes, and b and c are two grooves with the hollows bent in opposite directions. I then twist up the tube in spiral shape, so as to give it the form shown in Fig. 1, wherein the outer edges 01 and e of the grooves are inserted, respectively, one in the groove 0 with its hollow turned toward the outside of the tube and the other in the groove ib with its hollow turned toward the inside of thetube. The variousspiralsarethushooked oneinto the other and give each other a mutual support against the strains which have a tendenoyto distort them. These strains given as an example; but it can be modified,

the characteristic point of my invention being to prepare a tube in such a manner that when it is rolled up in spiral form the coils hook into one another, so as to afiord each other a mutual support.

I can also adopt the arrangement shown in Fig. 5, in which the tube f, to which I give an appropriate shape, preferably more or less flattened out, is provided with two grooves g and h on its sides, and the tube f, inside of which the fluid passes, is rolled up in spiral form on a mandrel in such manner that the outer edges of the grooves hook together.

Fig. 6 shows a special application of my tube for connecting steam-pipes, compressedair or vacuum brake-pipes between two cars.

In this case the parts m and n are made of tubes of my system.

CHARLES RUDOLPH.

Witnesses LOUIS TAILFER, WAL'IHER HARTMANN. 

